Roger Lapébie

Roger Lapébie

Personal information
Full name	Roger Lapébie
Born	(1911-01-16)16 January 1911 Bayonne, France
Died	12 October 1996(1996-10-12) (aged 85) Pessac, France
Team information
Discipline	Road
Role	Rider
Professional teams
1932-1936	La Française
1937-1939	Mercier
1947	Mercier
Major wins
Grand Tours Tour de France General classification (1937) 9 stages

Roger Lapébie (pronounced [ʁɔ.ʒe la.pe.bi]; 16 January 1911 – 12 October 1996) was a French racing cyclist who won the 1937 Tour de France. In addition, Lapébie won the 1934 and 1937 editions of the Critérium National. He was born at Bayonne, Aquitaine, and died in Pessac.

Early career[]

Lapébie made his debut in the Tour de France in 1932, as a member of the French national team. He won one stage in that Tour, and was selected again in 1933; that year he did not win any stage.

In 1934, Lapébie again rode the Tour de France as part of the national team. He won five stages, and finished in third place in the general classification. He would have been a contender for the victory in the 1935 Tour, had it not been for his difficult relation with Henri Desgrange, the Tour director. In the 1935 Tour de France, Lapébie was not selected to be part of the French national team, but had to start as a French individual cyclist. In the Tour of 1936, he did not even start.

1937 Tour de France[]

In 1937, Desgrange had retired, and Lapébie was back. In the month before the Tour started, Lapébie had undergone surgery for a lumbar hernia, and there were doubts about his form.^[1]

Lapébie won the 1937 Tour by riding 4,415 kilometers in 138 hours, 58 minutes and 31 seconds. His victory was controversial as he was the first rider to complete the race using a modern derailleur. This gave him the advantage of shifting gears without having to stop, dismount and flip the wheel as was customary of racing bicycles used at the time.^[2] Lapébie was also known to accept outside assistance in violation of the rules and was at one point penalized 90 seconds by race commissaires.^[3]

The advantages taken by Lapébie angered his Belgian rival, Sylvère Maes who had won the Tour the previous year. Maes had led the race through the Alps and Pyrenees but decided to quit in protest of Lapébie's tactics and derailleur use after the 16th stage to Bordeaux. Lapébie, in second place, took the yellow jersey in the absence of Maes and kept it until Paris. The victory delighted the French but angered the cycling-proud Belgians.

Following Lapébie's victory derailleurs became standard racing equipment in the Tour peloton.

Career achievements[]

Major results[]

Grand Tour results timeline[]

References[]

External links[]

• Roger Lapébie at Cycling Archives